Talk of water restrictions in Salem
We have yet to make it to Memorial Day and all ready the news is reporting of water shortages in Salem! Thanks in part to the building boom of the past 10 - 20 years there has become a huge strain on public water systems. As local communities grow by the thousands, the water supply is never expanded thus putting more demand on this precious resource.
What can we do as a community to help preserve our water supply? For starters repairing any dripping faucettes or running toilets will save hundreds of gallons of water per month! Utilizing native plants in your landscape will reduce the required watering amounts. If your lawn has shown signs of being stressed in the past, now is a great time to both dethatch and aerate your lawn. This will loosen the compacted soil and allow the water and nutrients to get deep down to the roots rather than running off your lawn. It is also recommended you water less frequently with deeper waterings. This will force the roots of your grass to grow deeper in search of the water. When your roots stay closer to the surface they are more easily affected in a negative way by the hot sun. When watering your landscape try and have all your watering done by 9:00 am. Early morning watering is the best. The most important action we can take is to put a rain sensor on our automated irrigation systems! If you are having a new system installed and the contractor isn’t offering this device, ask him/her why. A rain sensor isn’t the be all answer but it sure is a help.
Until the politicians figure out that they are putting too much demand on our current infrastructure by approving more and more development; we are going to be facing hardships with our water supplies. Let’s all do our part to conserve where we can.
